SCIENTOLOGY FOUNDER | MARCH 14, 2017

What Scientologists Do for L. Ron Hubbard’s Birthday

Every year on March 13, Scientologists celebrate L. Ron Hubbard’s birthday with great joy. He was, and still is through his works and writings, a very dear friend to us all. Yesterday being that day, I found myself musing about where Scientology and Scientologists came from, where we are now and what we had to go through to get here.

THOUSANDS OF SCIENTOLOGISTS were on hand for the 2017 L. Ron Hubbard Birthday Gala to acknowledge Mr. Hubbard’s wide-ranging accomplishments, and to share with each other the impact of his knowledge and leadership on their lives.

The story is simple, really: a man wondered what makes humans tick, started digging around and found out something about how the mind works. He described his findings in a book called Dianetics. People read the book, applied the principles laid out there and found that it worked.

This man continued his research and discovered and proved that man is an immortal being who can change for the better. And because he had now crossed from the field of the mind into the field of the spirit, Scientology was born and became a religion. Again, people read and applied the techniques described in Scientology and found they worked.

That is the simple, straightforward story of how we came about. And today we stand strong, expanding faster than ever, and carrying forward with Mr. Hubbard’s dream of helping man.

What we have had to go through is where some believe the story lies.

Such is not the case.

But from the beginning Dianetics and Scientology have been attacked viciously.

This is true of all religions. Christians were persecuted, thrown to hungry lions while crowds cheered, and today there are still places in the world where being a Christian is highly dangerous. Muslims are punished for the atrocious acts of the few who pretend to follow the Quran, but who are really just insane. Mormons were victimized from day one and still fight discrimination. Buddhists have been persecuted for centuries and Hindus are viciously attacked in certain countries. It is arguable that no one has suffered more than the Jews, but the appalling list of crimes against religions goes on and on, ad nauseum, intolerance, hatred, discrimination, and even murder, committed against a human being because of his or her religious beliefs.

The actual story is that there was a man who was wise and good, and who shared his knowledge with others because he wanted to help. Some people read his work, applied what he had found to the world around them and made things better.

I have been a Scientologist for over 30 years and I know hundreds, if not thousands, of other Scientologists. One thing I know for sure is that we adhere to a very strong moral code and believe firmly in human rights and helping our fellow man regardless of creed or color.

It is true that we have had to endure heavy discrimination in the form of lies, wild rumors, slanderous press, crimes committed out of hate. But again, that is not the actual story.

The actual story is that there was a man who was wise and good, and who shared his knowledge with others because he wanted to help. Some people read his work, applied what he had found to the world around them and made things better.

CAPPING THE BIRTHDAY GALA was an inspired performance, led by award-winning jazz musician Mark Isham, in honor of Mr. Hubbard and the infinite gift of freedom he tendered to all mankind.

Every year we work to extend our reach into society because we have the means to help. We know how to fix broken marriages, we know how to eradicate drug addiction, we know how to truly educate children so that they can think for themselves and become contributing members of society, we know how to help man through spiritual travail and in so doing bring him closer to a higher power.

And so, we celebrate the birthday of the man who gave us the tools to better conditions for ourselves and others, because we are grateful and happy that he lived.

It is only fitting that the quality of our “gift” to Ron each year is measured in the numbers of lives we have improved using the tools of Dianetics and Scientology, for his entire life was selflessly dedicated to helping mankind and making the world a better place for all.